-- Wilburn F. "Will" Lyons, for being honored by the Sabine Neches Chiefs' Association with its Community Service Award on Monday. The award recognized Lyons for his service to the community and the association. Lyons served as chair for the Department of Public Service and Safety for Lamar Institute of Technology for six years, and was coordinator for the Regional Fire Academy and the Fire Protection Technology program before that. He recently retired from LIT, according to an LIT news release.

-- Members of the Beaumont Parks staff, who competed Nov. 14 in the Texas Recreation and Park Society east region equipment rodeo, coming in second overall. The competition was held in Centennial Park in Pearland. City employees made strong showings in individual competitions, according to a city news release. Tommy Bowman placed first in the backhoe competition, Cornelius Hunt and Paul Fontenot placed third in the truck and trailer competition, and Kenneth Granger placed third in the backpack blower competition.

-- Lamar University students Christine Gartner, a senior majoring in geology and Erica Lassen a junior also majoring in geology, for winning first-place student conference awards at the 2013 Sigma Xi Student Research Conference in Research Triangle, N.C. The students, both from Beaumont, competed in the undergraduate division of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, and Geological Sciences, according to a Lamar news release. The pair presented "Results of the 2012 field season excavations on the first Uinta C micro-mammal fossil locality from the Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah."

-- Seventeen-year-old Brittany Lalonde, daughter of Ted and Patty Lalonde of Beaumont, for being named Miss Teen of Texas at the 2013 Miss Teen of Texas Scholarship & Recognition Pageant held Thanksgiving weekend in San Antonio. Seventy young women, ages 13 to 18, from across the state participated in the event, which culminated in the naming of the new State Titleholder at the Pageant Finals last Sunday in the Marriott Rivercenter Hotel Ballroom. Brittany is a junior at Hamshire-Fannett High school where she is a member of the varsity cheer squad, basketball team and track team. As part of her prize package, Brittany will receive a $1,000 cash scholarship and will have the opportunity participate in the National Miss Teen of America competition to compete for an additional scholarship and awards.

Brickbats go to:

-- The owner of an Eagle Pass concrete company, who has pleaded guilty in Del Rio to bribing a top official in his border county to get construction contracts. Prosecutors said Salvador Castillon, owner of South Texas Concrete, won $564,800 in construction contracts in 2010 and 2011, the same period during which he paid a county commissioner $57,000. According to the indictment, Castillon would pay the commissioner between $3,000 and $5,000 for every contract he received. Castillon faces up to 10 years in prison. So far a dozen people have pleaded guilty to public corruption-related charges in Maverick County.